Maksim Rukov

Maksim Mikhailovich Rukov (born 12 January 1966) is a former Soviet KGB and GRU spetsnaz officer. Born in the city of Sverdlovsk, his parents were killed when he was young in a terrorist attack in Dushanbe, then part of the Tajik SSR. He ended up graduating in June 1988 from the Ryazan Higher Airborne Command School, where he learned to speak fluent English, Spanish, and Arabic, before being sent to serve in Afghanistan. He was then transferred to a spetsnaz unit in the Siberian Military District. In August 1991 he was promoted to captain and transferred to the KGB Department P in Leningrad. In the process of investigating the prostitution and drug trade ring run by corrupt KGB colonel Vladimir Kuznetsov, Rukov ended up uncovering the "New Birth" conspiracy by some other KGB officers who intended to kidnap Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and replace him with a Communist hardliner. Rukov's investigative work was instrumental in preventing the coup.